Burning Man draws record crowd on Nevada desert

RENO, Nev. 
More than 50,000 revelers gathered Saturday on the northern Nevada desert for the climax of the annual Burning Man counterculture festival.

A record crowd of 53,341 attended the event on Friday night, a 9 percent increase over the same time a year ago, said federal Bureau of Land Management spokeswoman Lisa Ross. Saturday's attendance figure wasn't immediately available.

Ticket sales were cut off July 25 after the festival sold out for the first time in its 25-year history.

Last year's event, climaxing over Labor Day weekend, attracted more than 51,000 people to the remote Black Rock Desert about 120 miles northeast of Reno.

No major problems have been reported at the weeklong art, music and performance festival that ends Monday.

"I would say it's been a peaceful gathering," Ross told The Associated Press. "It's amazing how few problems there have been considering it's one of Nevada's biggest cities while it takes place."

BLM rangers reported three felony arrests and the issuance of 42 citations, mostly for drug-related offenses, as of Friday night. One participant died of unknown natural causes on Wednesday, Ross said.

The annual celebration of radical self-expression was expected to make its usual climax late Saturday night with the torching of its 40-foot signature effigy.

On Sunday, participants planned to torch the Temple of Transition, which has been billed as the tallest installation art structure ever erected at Burning Man.

The structure, which covers more than 45,000 square feet, features a 120-foot tiered, hexagonal central tower, surrounded by five 58-foot tiered, hexagonal towers. Inside, participants meditate, chant or write notes to loved ones, especially those who have died.

Among other attractions, the anything-goes festival also offers topless bike parades, yachts on wheels strolling the desert floor, geodesic domes that house dance clubs, the Party Naked bar, a 22-ton Trojan horse, Irish pubs, a giant teeter-totter, weddings and a French Quarter-themed camp, the Reno Gazette-Journal reported.